Have you ever tried to sweep a tennis court by hand? Especially an artificial grass court. Well from experience I can tell you it’s no easy feat although it will give you a good workout / heart attack!! So is it worth spending a few pounds on making life easier? I should think it is and to ease the burden Sweepfast have a wide range of sweepers that will clean and maintain tennis courts, netball courts, bowli9ng greens, car parks, drive ways, garden paths, etc etc
This is an all mechanically driven petrol engine sweeper that comes with a collector box included in the price.
It will sweep 600mm wide and the brush can be set to sweep left, straight ahead or right.
It comes in at an impressive £615.00 including VAT and delivery and carries a 12 month warranty.
It has several bigger siblings from the 710TGE with three forward and one reverse gear at £670.00 incl.
Handy Sweep 710TGE
And then on to the versatile Combi machine with three quickly detachable heads on one power unit, a sweeper, a snow blower and a scraper blade all for £1275.00 incl.
Texas Combi-800TG Three in One
For the professional user we would recommend the Powerbrush range of hydraulically driven machines starting the the Powerbrush 750 machine at £2,900.00 incl
Powerbrush 750
and the biggest in this range is the Powerbrush 1010 which weighs in at £4,375.00 incl.
Analysis of the infill in a sand filled synthetic grass pitch
Just imagine that a few years ago you spent thousands of pounds on an all weather hockey pitch, or tennis courts, and as you look out of the window at it now and see ducks wading about on it you’re aware that all is definitely not well. Maybe closer inspection reveals sludge patches, and green ribbons of broken fiber running across the surface? If so then it is a signal that the infill is becoming contaminated with all manner of biological contamination and this has reached such a level where it won’t drain the rain water away, or at least only very slowly.
A quick panic call to a specialist installer might bring back the comment that “Oh yes it’s quite common, but the synthetic grass surface needs replacing at a cost of £ thousands”!! As you stare at the ceiling and wonder why you are lying on the floor, it all comes flooding back. Your groundsman finding you there says “Don’t worry boss we can get the surface tested by Sweepfast, and see if we really do need a new pitch” Following a brief call to Sweepfast, and a site inspection carried out, you are now in possession of a sedimentation test report with the results that show:
the pitch isn’t worn out and actually has only worn a few millimeters from it original height
the infill is contaminated and the levels are well over 10%
the pitch can be “refurbished” for a fraction of the cost of a replacement
Happy Days!!
Extracting Contaminated Sand from a Synthetic Grass Pitch @ 70% Contamination
Test results in the past have shown, particularly on RAF pitches near the sea where sea gulls spend a lot of time dumping “fuel” on the pitch, contamination levels reach over 70%, and a full refurb and sand replacement have dropped this down to less than 1%.
An indication backed up by facts that the Hydrofast System from Sweepfast is extremely effective at extracting sand from long pile sand filled synthetic grass surfaces, cleaning the pitch to ‘as new’, and even cleaning out the drainage holes in the backing, a thorough job indeed.
For more information call Sweepfast on 0121 747 9255 or simply visit www.sweepfast.com.
“Can you clean my tarmac tennis court?” The voice at the other end of the phone says. “It’s got a bit of moss on it” they add, it’s then that you know it’s really bad.
But it’s not all bad news, and a tarmac court is easily cleaned off using high pressure water through a flat surface cleaner to spread the pressure out so it doesn’t rip up the tarmac. You see tennis court tarmac has to be by nature free draining and therefore it’s not compacted down as much as say a playground or roadway, and as such is much more fragile.
The order of play is to treat first to kill off the live moss, then clean it out using the appropriate system, then treat again to mop up the remaining moss and algae, and finally to colour coat in some new non slip paint to protect it for another few years.
All this tennis court maintenance work is done in house by our own trained technicians, and re lined using the latest laser technology.
For a free site visit and quote call 0121 747 9255, visit www.sweepfast.com or email sales@sweepfast.com
” Can I really clean the leaves, litter, other wind borne debris, bird poo!! from my tennis court in 10 minutes?”
Simply put the answer is certainly yes you can, and a 2 metre wide Cleansweep from Sweepfast is all you’ll need. These amazingly simple but effective tools have been around for years and still customers are finding out just how good they are. Initially they were intended to collect litter from asphalt tennis courts, which they do equally well, but it soon became apparent that they were perfect for sand filled artificial grass courts too, and now they’re finding a use on the old clay courts but also on the new generation of artificial clay courts to clean up the artificial clay and re-distribute it evenly.
As with all Aerosweep products they work so simply, you provide the forward motion and everything on the surface of the tennis court is lifted up by the fingers and dropped onto the grid. From here the sand will fall through and be worked back into the court, whilst the larger debris is trapped on the top and stays there until emptied.
In fact because it’s 2 Metres wide it will only take 8 or 9 passes to cover the entire court once, and as it only weighs around 6kg, and you pull it not push it, it really is very easy to use.
The Cleansweep Artificial Grass Cleaning Tool
To empty you simply shake it off onto a sheet or in the gateway and 10 mins later when you’re completely finished, shovel it up into a wheelbarrow and that’s it done!!
All the teams at Sweepfast use these tools in the regular day to day maintenance of tennis courts, and always carry one in the van, but they also find them useful when putting new sand back in after a refurb.
But there is only one way to see just how good these tools are, and that is try it for yourself, visit www.sweepfast.com and type cleansweep in the search bar, or email us on sales@sweepfast.com, or if in doubt call 0121 747 9255 and a technician will talk through whether it’s suitable for you tennis court.
But hurry up, the leaves are starting to fall………………………
Quality Machines From The German Manufacturer Hoerger
Horger Machinery
Why Choose Horger?
Horger manufacture artificial turf equipment for the maintenance of synthetic sports surfaces. This synthetic turf maintenance machinery is hand built by German engineers in their factory near Hamburg, but unlike other manufacturers they are purpose built to do a specific job and are not just modified industrial sweepers or grass mowers.
The KBR System for the deep cleaning of porous and non porous rubber running tracks.
Hoerger started by manufacturing athletic track cleaning machinery (the KBR) in the 1980’s then started work on designing the SKU machines for deep cleaning artificial grass surfaces in early 2000.
The SKR System for deep cleaning water based synthetic grass surfaces
In 2001 Hoerger developed the SKR head water based hockey pitch cleaner to run in conjunction with the existing rear tank on the KBR for deep cleaning water based synthetic grass surfaces
The SKU system for deep cleaning of sand filled, sand dressed and 3G synthetic grass sports surfaces
The first Hoerger SKU machine to clean artificial turf was introduced in 2004 with sales starting in 2005. By the end of 2007 100 of these machines were working across Europe.
In 2008 the SKU Trac (pictured left) was introduced with a custom built 24hp hydrostatic tractor unit powering it.
A new SKU1200 rear mount and front mounted unit was introduced and then front mounted unit to fit Avant loaders was introduced (pictured right) .
There is now a 1500 Basic machine (left) added to this range with electric fan dust extraction to introduce an economical variant to the range.
Hoerger surface brushes.
At the end of 2010 the BS2000 range of brushes was introduced with the first one ready for the IOG Saltex show in September, and this has been augmented by the addition of de-compacting tines with depth wheels and a squeegee blade for levelling out the infill especially when re-filling a pitch with new sand and or rubber.
How do you extract the sand infill from an Astroturf pitch? The most successful way to extract contaminated sand and the associated contamination from a sand filled synthetic grass pitch, or tennis courts is using a high pressure injection system to displace it to the surface for collection. Sweepfast has developed the Hydrofast System which utilises high pressure water delivered at a precisely controlled height from the surface to lift out the material and also to wash the fibres of the synthetic grass clean as it goes. The system is built around an Avant telehandler which travels across the surface at around 0.5 km/hr lifting out the material as it goes and leaving it in a line to be collected by the following machinery.
The results can be very dramatic as demonstrated with the Sweepfast Infill Contamination Test Kit, with a total contamination ratio of around 70.49% on an extremely badly maintained pitch we have reduced that down to 1.38% in just 5 days, see the two images below for examples.
Before:-
Pitch before refurb
And After:-
After Pitch Refurb
To see more of this impressive system visit www.sweepfast.com or call 0121 747 9255 for a free site visit, assessment and quote.
As with all outdoor surfaces moss, algae, leaf litter and debris are the biggest enemy you will have to face to keep your tennis court in playable condition. If your tennis court was say a swimming pool you would have a cover over it, a filter system in place to keep the water clean, and you’d treat the water regularly to keep it in safe condition, then possibly once a year get the professionals in to do an annual maintenance on it. Well just carry that forward to your tennis court and you will quickly realise that the tennis court maintenance regime has to be pretty similar if you’re going to prevent it sliding into disrepair. So what should the routine be?
Hygiene should be the first thing on the list, and that means keeping the surface free from organic debris that will decay into the infill and clog it up.
Inspection of the seams, these must be re-stuck if they are lifting, before they become dangerous.
Inspection of the sand levels, this must be at the recommended levels laid out in the data sheet from the installer, only kiln dried sand of the correct grade must be applied and brushed in.
Finally at least once yearly the surface must be deep cleaned by a team of professionals such as Sweepfast, to lift out the sand infill clean it of fine debris, dead moss and algae etc etc. then brush the sand infill back in and treat the entire area for moss and algae control.
With this in place you should have a beautiful tennis court fit for play for many years to come.
Sweepfast have been involved in outdoor sports surface cleaning for many years, and finding a safe reliable product that can be applied time and time again has been a persistent problem. With health and safety a major concern most of the active products have been removed from the market place leaving various products available some with wild claims regarding their performance. Here at Sweepfast we take an active interest in evaluating every product that comes our way, with some surprising results. Click Here
Our particular problem is preparing a surface ready for our machinery to perform a deep clean service, this means treating the surface for biological contaminants such as moss and algae. A difficult problem especially given the climate we in the UK suffer at the moment. persistent and recurring showers mean that timing the treatment is essential, and a product that works effectively and quickly is necessary.
In the latest batch of trials we discovered that RBT 247 produces a very fast effective control of algae in water based hockey pitches, whilst Algon produces a rapid clean up of moss infested surfaces. Both are safe products to use when applied in the prescribed manner, also both products can be used on the sports field and around the home. Where RBT 247 has been used, we have found that moss and algae is reluctant to grow back so a long term control is obviously a very important benefit worth considering.
Both products are available from our web shop and will be delivered on a next day basis. Full backup, technical advice and safety data sheets are readily available, just log on to sweepfast and register to be able to download documents.
With the summer promising to arrive sometime soon, and thoughts of playing tennis again firmly set in your mind, you walk out into the garden with raquet in hand only to find your beautiful artificial grass tennis court covered in leaves, blossom etc etc. With the only tools at hand being a large brush you start the arduous task of brushing the court, some 550 sq m of it, to enable play to take place. The after effects of brushing artificial grass surfaces look ok, but close inspection will reveal a lot of broken up leaf litter and other debris pressed into the infill, which is less than desirable and will cause long term problems encouraging moss growth and eventually leading to drainage failure leading to a tennis court looking a little like this:
Artificial Grass Tennis Court Covered In Moss
This court was particularly bad with moss up to 25mm deep over most of the surface, it certainly looked as though it needed mowing!!
A few days later it looked like this:
Artificial Grass Tennis Court With Moss Removed
After play had resumed on it all it needed was a sand top up and it was back to as new condition, but the most important question from the customer was how do I prevent this from happening again? The answer to this in essence is quite simple but it does need pressing home, MAINTENANCE!! If the facility, which had cost a lot of money to install in the first place, had been maintained from the outset this situation would never have arisen, and the golden rule for maintaining all outdoor sports surfaces is Cleanliness. The first weapon for the groundsperson or owner is the Cleansweep cleaning mat, with this simple yet effective tool you will be able to clean and remove litter from an artificial grass tennis court in just a few minutes. The Cleansweep will sweep, remove leaf litter, twigs, blossom, seeds and other biological debris from the surface, then at the same time it is working back in the sand that has been brought to the top of the surface leaving behind a clean even tennis court. All this in one simple machine makes regular maintenance of sand filled artificial grass tennis courts so easy it becomes a pleasurable regular task with satisfying end results.
The next procedure to put in place is to treat the surface regularly for moss control, with the restrictions now on most chemicals that were effective on moss and algae some of the surface cleaner chemicals are suitable to apply regularly without causing environmental issues. One such product is Algon, this product works on contact with the plant and the process starts rapidly with noticeable effects visible within a couple of days. Once the kill has been completed and the moss is brown it can be brushed from the surface, this can be done by hand but again it is an arduous task, and a solution is to use a powerbrush. The simplest and cheapest of these is the Texas Handysweep 600TG, this will rapidly powersweep dead moss from the surface leaving it clear for another application of moss killer.
With all this in place the last course of action is to book in a deep clean service once a year during the driest period to remove debris, dead moss and broken fibre from deep down in the carpet where brushing with the Cleansweep and the Handysweep can’t reach. This process is carried out with a Hoerger SKU machine either driven by a tractor or mounted on an Avant machine and driven hydraulically.
As long as these procedures are followed strictly and carried out under the right conditions the artificial grass tennis court should stay in pristine condition for many to come.
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